A comparison of various agarose preparations in a counter-immunoelectrophoresis (CIE) system for assaying urinary myoglobin

Twenty-two samples of commercial agarose were utilized as the gel matrix in a counter-immunoelectrophoresis (CIE) for detection of urinary myoglobin. When different samples were tested under identical conditions, significant differences in the detectable levels of myoglobin by CIE could be traced to the quality of the agarose used. The quality of agarose preparation could be improved by repurification using polyethylene glycol precipitation. The necessity of using purified agarose when assaying for urinary myoglobin by CIE is stressed. This is particularly important when the test is used in the early detection of myocardial infarcts.